Ex Moldovan MP sentenced to 14 years for spying for Russia

A court in Moldova has sentenced a former parliamentarian to 14 years in prison on charges of high treason and espionage for Russia, according to reports.

Photo: peterbwiberg/pixabay/CC0 Creative Commons

The court found Iurie Bolboceanu guilty of spying for Russia’s GRU military intelligence service, the Moldovan general prosecutor’s office said on Tuesday, as quoted by Poland’s PAP news agency.

Bolboceanu, who was a lawmaker from 2001 to 2005 and from 2010 to 2014, was also handed a four-year ban on holding public office after leaving prison, PAP reported.

He was detained on March 17 last year during what Moldovan security services said was a meeting with a Russian spy, the Polish news agency reported.

“He collected and passed information of special importance to the state that could have been used against Moldova’s national interests,” the country’s general prosecutor said in a statement, as quoted by PAP.

The general prosecutor added investigators had found that Bolboceanu regularly held secret meetings with GRU operatives and accepted payment for carrying out their orders, according to PAP.